Culture Won't Feed You? Untrue!

IT IS AN OLD ADAGE THAT NEEDS TO BE DISMANTLED: DISNEY AND VENTURE CAPITAL ARE HEAVILY INVESTING IN CULTURE, FOR INSTANCE. THE POINT IS THAT CULTURE PROMOTES IDENTITY AND COHESION AS WELL AS BUSINESS

by Paola Dubini, Dept. of Management and Technology, Bocconi
Translated by Alex Foti


Culture really is nourishing. It nourishes one’s spirit and curiosity, the desire to know and discuss it with other people; culture creates relationships and protects what’s precious. It is content and process at the same time. It belongs to individuals, as well as groups and communities. It tells the story of a locality, gives substance to the history and the greatness of a population, and adds to the importance of a nation. It enables personal and professional growth of a great variety of actors and operators; culture attracts tourists, mobilizes talent, and permeates sustainable development. And of course it gives rise to economic wealth and business and social spillovers.

Nevertheless, the expression "culture won’t feed you" (con la cultura non si mangia) is well-entrenched in the Italian mind. It is quoted almost as often as its converse: culture is Italy’s oil. In fact, both of these should be refuted: the former because untrue, the latter because too reductive.

My suggestion is to look at culture as something intrinsically precious, even though it may not have a market. Culture and heritage are too often taken for granted, with the result that the perception of their value only occurs when something compromises it. The fact is that small but continuous investments, and an adequate amount of attention can generate great returns, economic or not.

The cliché that culture doesn’t put food on the table can be dealt with in various ways. First of all, by recognizing that culture is real and permeates our existence, whether in terms of lifestyle, or a system of rules and traditions, or as a source of identity. Secondly, by recognizing that culture is an expression of power, of uniqueness, of belonging. Culture constructs imaginaries, which are used to build power and for purposes of propaganda and legitimization, but also for purposes of social protest, cultural diplomacy, tourist attractiveness. To say that culture does not feed people because it is superfluous for survival means not recognizing how vital storytelling is for people, and how it is steeped in culture. It seems paradoxical to have to argue this in a country like Italy, which owes to the diffusion of opera the fact that the beauty of its language is appreciated around the world, and to the expressive efficacy of Italian cinema in portraying the country’s dolce vita (sweet life).

Even if we just limit ourselves to the economic sphere, the old saying that you cannot eat culture is misleading. Although culture and its fruition go beyond the logic of economic exchange, the markets for culture are varied, articulated and strongly polarized, according to the long tail effect: alongside a small number of products reaching a vast audience, there is a very large number of niche markets. The supply of culture is constantly growing and data on cultural consumption underestimate the phenomenon, especially its digital component. And although cultural markets may seem small when taken individually, it is worth recalling that, in the course of a year, there are more Italians who read a book, with respect to those who attend a soccer game or go out dancing.

Moreover, judging by the behavior of companies like Disney, which is carrying out an aggressive acquisition policy, it seems hard to argue that investment in culture does not pay off: haven’t venture capitalists been investing strongly in cultural enterprises for some time? The issue is not that culture does not nourish people either economically or metaphorically, but that there needs to be greater collective attention to the conditions that ensure the sustainable growth of the culture sector. If we learn to give the proper attention to culture, its riches and the externalities it affords will be increasingly evident.